Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Wilder Responder

Only the third day of my Wilderness First Responder class, and already I've been kicked in the kidney by a horse, shattered my wrist mountain biking, split an artery and gone into shock at least four times. And I'm still able to perform an initial patient assessment on my cousin at the end of the day.

The class it ten days long, 80 hours total, provided by Remote Medical International. We take a lot of notes, but most of the time we're outside in the woods setting up bad ass scenarios with stage make up and learning how to bandage a sucking chest wound with a plastic glove. Every evening I arrive home staggering with new knowledge and exhausted.

Meeting midnight deadlines for original articles has been tough. I thought I'd be able to a little bit of outlining during class, but no way. In the first five minutes, I understood that I'd spend each moment in class in rapt attention. Every single thing those three instructors (all women, I'll add) tell us is vital. Absolutely no time is wasted.

These last few nights, I typed with one hand and held my eyes open with the other. Once I finally fall asleep around 1am, I'm pretty damn proud of myself. Tomorrow after a full 8-5:45 day, we're getting a break for dinner and then returning for our first night simulation. This is the best class I've ever taken, the most exciting things I've ever learned, and I hope I never have to use any of it.